This is from our weekend service at the Williamsburg campus this past Sunday, October 25th (www.thecitylifechurch.com). We closed our service with this amazing story of faith and perseverance. My prayer is that it will be the same source of encouragement to you as it so often is to me.
Horatio Spafford (1828-1888) was a wealthy Chicago
lawyer with a thriving legal practice, a beautiful home, a wife, and four
daughters. He was also a devout Christian, a faithful student of the Scriptures,
and a church elder. His circle of
friends included D. L. Moody, Ira Sankey and various other well-known
Christians of the day.
At the very height of his financial and
professional success, Horatio and his wife Anna suffered the tragic loss of
their young son. Shortly thereafter on October 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire
destroyed almost every real estate investment that Spafford had.
In 1873, Spafford scheduled a boat trip to Europe
in order to give his wife and daughters a much needed vacation and time to
recover from the tragedy. He also went to join Moody and Sankey on an
evangelistic campaign in England. Spafford sent his wife and daughters ahead of
him while he remained in Chicago to take care of some unexpected last minute
business. Several days later he received notice that his family's ship had encountered
a collision. All four of his daughters drowned along with over 200 others; only
his wife had survived and having arrived in England sent a telegram that began
simply with the two words, “Saved alone.”
With a heavy heart, Spafford boarded a boat that
would take him to his grieving Anna in England. It was on this trip that he
penned those now famous words.
After receiving Anna's telegram, Horatio
immediately left Chicago to bring his wife home. On the Atlantic crossing, the
captain of his ship called Horatio to his cabin to tell him that they were
passing over the spot where his four daughters had perished. He wrote to
Rachel, his wife's half-sister, "On Thursday last we passed over the spot
where she went down, in mid-ocean, the waters three miles deep. But I do not
think of our dear ones there. They are safe, folded, the dear lambs."
Horatio wrote his hymn, still sung today, as he
passed over their watery grave.
Philip Bliss (1838-1876), a famed composer, was so
impressed with Spafford's life and the words of his hymn that he composed a
beautiful piece of music to accompany the lyrics. The song was published by
Bliss and Sankey, in 1876.
For more than a century, the tragic story of one
man has given hope to countless thousands who have lifted their voices to sing,
It Is Well With My Soul.
It Is Well With My Soul
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should
come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
And Lord haste the day, when my faith shall be
sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall
descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
It is well, with my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul.
May it be well with your soul today and forevermore!
Pastor Fred
